Sitting against a tree, Damien could be seen breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling in rapid succession, his body covered in dozens of wounds and visible dried blood. ‘I'm tired,’ he thought while examining the area around him with caution.

  After escaping from the area where he had fought the Hanusars, Damien began making his way in the direction the system told him to go, and for a while, everything was fine, and he was making his way there casually. That was until IT appeared. Whatever it was, the being was much stronger than Damien and was forcing him to flee, but for whatever reason, it never tried to kill him and only inflicted wound after wound on his body.

  Suddenly, his eyes widened before he rolled to the left, away from the tree he was leaning against. Right when he was out of the way, the tree exploded into thousands of fragments, some hitting him with such force that they pierced his skin.

  Staring at the source of the attack was the figure that had been chasing him around this entire time. ‘Something's different.’ Damien thought as the being had been concealing itself and never truly showing what it looked like, this time though it was standing right in front of him looking at him like it was looking at prey.

  Using the system, he scanned the being in front of him to figure out what it was. Reading what the system displayed left a look of shock on Damien’s face.

  “??? (Unknown being to the system) Level - 168.

  Gritting his teeth, Damien pushed his bruised body up off the ground and disappeared once more while using his perception to examine the figure behind him. Seeing him run once more, it adopted a thrilled expression, a creepy smile on its face.

  Whatever this thing was, it looked exactly like a human. The only difference was that it was as black as a piece of coal, and its eyes were entirely white, making it look especially menacing. Even Damien got shivers looking at it.

  The being continued to stand in place, letting Damien, who was still watching it with his perception, get far ahead. After quite a while of running, he was no longer in range of Damien’s senses.

  “I have to think of a way to escape this thing. Right now, it seems to be toying with me for whatever reason, which means I have a chance at outsmarting it,” he said to himself while continuing to run.

  Having no idea how far it would be until he found civilization, Damien had to come up with a plan to trap it or potentially kill the being. He had no delusions that he could make it to a town in time before the beast eventually got bored and killed him.

  Keeping his senses expanded to the max while running, he examined the surroundings for anything that could help him. Damien could sense multiple different animals of varying strengths before he got an idea… ‘If I can find something stronger or of equal strength, I can bait it into a fight.’

  This seemed like the best option since he had no time to do something like set up a trap; the moment he rested, the figure would attack in less than three minutes without fail, meaning it was not far behind him.

  As he was spiriting, Damien whipped his head in a certain direction and focused his senses that way. An aura that gave off an extreme feeling of dread could be felt in that direction. Whatever was in that direction had to be as strong as the thing chasing him.

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  Damien was not stupid going into a beast's territory that was as strong, if not stronger than the thing chasing him could end up being a death sentence however, he had a trick up his sleeve. That being his ability to go into the shadows.

  He had tried to use it to escape the being previously, and it had almost worked, but somehow it discovered him in the end forcing him to flee once more, so Damien figured if he used that ability in combination with making it fight something as strong as itself he could escape while it was distracted.

  Hyping himself up, he swiftly changed directions and began to run towards the aura he sensed. Hopefully whatever was over here could hold off this crazy thing chasing him. Otherwise, Damien was out of ideas to get away and would be forced to use the tailsmin the system gave him for teleporting to other worlds.

  As he got closer to the aura, Damien began to truly feel scared for the first time in a while, despair, horror, death. It made him feel like he was walking to his own grave. Suddenly, behind him, he sensed something appear.

  It was the figure, turning his head he looked at it with caution waiting for it to attack. “I’d advise you to leave that area otherwise, you will die a death much worse than what I would have inflicted upon you.” Its voice was deep and dark, making one feel dread upon listening to it.

  Damien’s face immediately lit up with shock, not only because it could speak but because he could understand him. “You can speak? What the hell are you, and how can I understand you?”

  The being smiled mysteriously at his question and said, “What I am does not matter. How about I make a proposition to you?”

  Narrowing his eyes at the words of the figure, Damien weighed his options. ‘clearly, whatever this guy is, he is scared of this area and won't even enter it himself, so staying here is going to get me killed, but if I leave, it's back to being chased…’

  Thinking it over, Damien decided to first hear what he had to say. “Speak.”

  “It’s simple, Your abilities intrigued me. While I was planning on killing you, how about we become friends instead? I can help you get out of this area, and in return, you answer some of my questions.”

  Damien almost scoffed at the figure's words. “Do you think I am stupid? Unless you have some way to guarantee you won’t attack me, I’d rather take my chances in here than continue to be chased around like I am prey.” He said while adopting an annoyed look.

  The figure chuckled his laugh grating to the ears, “relax I of course have a way to go about this. You look young, so you probably don’t know about this, but you can use the system to sign a type of contract. The contract will state its terms, and many beings use this to do things like trade safely or guarantee they don’t get scammed.”

  “It can also be used to make sure someone won’t attack you, if the person does so, the system will have every right to revoke any abilities it had previously bestowed them and can even kill them depending on its judgment.”

  Damien’s face lit up, understanding where the figure was going with this. “System, is what he is saying true?” Damien asked aloud on purpose.

  “Yes, the user can ask for a contract, and as long as the other party agrees, the system will make sure it is upheld.”

  Nodding his head, Damien looked at the figure in its completely white eyes, “I can agree to do a contract, but I also want to add a condition.”

  An interested expression could be seen growing on the figure's face. “I'm listening.”

  “For asking questions, I would also like to ask you some, but if there is something either of us doesn’t want to answer, then the other party can’t push the subject.”

  The figure nodded his head, giving his agreement. “That’s reasonable. Anything else? If not, I have something of my own I want to add.”

  “What is it?”

  Giving Damien a creepy smile, the being said, “I can agree to us not answering questions, but there is one question you must answer. I won’t tell you what the question is, but you HAVE to answer it otherwise, forget the contract.”

  ‘What could he possibly want to ask that is so important?’ Damien thought… ‘Is it about my shadow abilities?’ That seemed to be the only plausible explanation. While he did not want to answer any questions about them and would have liked to keep them hidden, it seemed he had no other choice.

  “Fine, I agree,” he said while being inwardly annoyed at himself for being too weak. The being's creepy smile grew even brighter hearing his words, “Wonderful, now how about we get away from here before that… thing arrives? I would like to ask my questions before you die, you know.